Mortgage-Killer Brewday

Last month, we talked about the stupid idea that’s infected my brain—a mortgage-killer beer. Thirty years is a tall order for many wines protected by sulfites, alcohol and acidity, let alone a beer. We’ve already covered what we employ to help get the beer to the finish line in a drinkable condition.

Normally, when I write this column, I’m writing about things in the past, but today—a little experiment—live brewing and writing. For the record, it’s October 5, 2010, and today is the day I close on my first house, so I’m taking a day off, finishing the paperwork, packing, etc. And hey, to add fun to the moving day, I’ll have a fresh batch of beer waiting to slide the whopping five blocks to the new homestead.

It’s currently high noon in Pasadena, Calif., and it’s about 65˚F and drizzly—weirdly English and appropriate for today’s brew session. The strike water has been treated with a pinch of potassium metabisulfite for chloramine removal and is headed for temperature. For a beer this ginormous, I called in the big guns and borrowed Jonny Lieberman’s massive mash tun.

The grain has to be weighed and milled and then stuffed into the newly cleaned mash tun. OK, first setback of the day. After 30 minutes, I’ve barely hit 140˚F… damn anemic exchange tanks. Off to the propane depot to get a real fill on this bad boy.

The burner is roaring like a champ! Weighed out the grain, set the mill to crush 61 pounds and have just enough time to crush it. *SNAG 2* The mill is down! Fifteen pounds in and the mill decided to grind to a halt and then free spin. My usual tricks failed to get things moving again; time to go borrow gear. No, I’m not going to crack 45 pounds with a rolling pin.

It’s now a sunny October 7; I’ve procured a new mill and, as expected, it tore right through the buckets of malt. This is more like it and wow, even in this big tun, the malt is right to the top. So I pulled some out and added water to grain. Once it’s settled, I’ll stir in the rest and wait a good 90 minutes at 153˚F. As the mash comes to an end, I’ll top up with water to account for grain absorption.

OK, checking back in… first runnings are a whopping 27.2 Brix (1.111). Before the boil, I’m sitting pretty with 11 inches of wort at 24.6B (1.099). For those who don’t measure your wort by height—that’s 11 by 1.32 gallons per inch or 14.5 gallons in a 26-gallon kettle. This was with a very light sparge, since I didn’t want a long boil (hence the planned efficiency of 55 percent).

Now that I know the beer’s weight and general taste (solid ruby-red leather with no hint of roast despite the pale chocolate), I can choose the hops. As I do frequently, Magnum gets the ball rolling after a half-hour of boiling. Challenger will form the flavor component and gets the yeast nutrient and Whirlfloc and EKG at knockout because it’s classic. Each gets a little dish and the timer starts.

Game changer: Instead of adding the sugar now, I’m going to save it and dose it into the fermenters over the next couple of days. It’ll be easier for the yeast and hopefully make the fermentation go smoothly, with less fusel alcohol formation. Granted, I’ve got time to age out anything, but why start on a bad foot?

The boil’s wrapping up—everything went in without a hitch. Chiller loop (pump to CFC to IC submerged in ice) is PBWed and sanitized. After the chill, I’ll circulate sanitizer and then blow the whole loop out with CO2. The kegs get a quick burst of O2 before covering the relief valves with aluminum foil and setting them in the fridge and water bath.

Now that the beer is resting comfortably, it’s time to drink something fine, like a bottle of the Bruery’s White Oak, and hopefully in the morning, the beer will be well on its long journey. It may have taken two days, but this concludes our “live” feed. (Or, as Sean Paxton puts it, “the spent-grain feed.”)

MORTGAGE KILLER OLD ALE
For 11 Gallons at 1.143, 55 IBU, 17 SRM, ~15% ABV, ~55% Efficiency

Malt / Grain / Sugar
60.0 lb. Maris Otter
1.0 lb. pale chocolate malt
7.0 lb. brown sugar (added as syrup over fermentation)

Hops (Pellets)
2.5 oz US Magnum | 12%AA | 60 minutes
2.0 oz Challenger | 7.8%AA | 10 minutes
2.0 oz East Kent Goldings | 5.2%AA | 0 minutes

Yeast
WLP005 British Ale Yeast

Mash
153˚F  Saccharification Rest
90 minutes (thick ration for space) ■